It's done it; Seagate has achieved a 625Gbit/in2 areal density enabling it to produce 3TB Barracuda drives on just three platters instead of the current five.

It says it is on track for the channel to receive product around the middle of the year with 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB and 3TB capacity points.

These are 3.5-inch form factor drives, and the three platter product will cost less to produce than five-platter product. We imagine its Constellation ES product will use terabyte platters too eventually by the way.